Yesterday (Sunday), there was an emergency General Order (G.O.) on the (A) subway line that shut down service between Euclid Avenue and Howard Beach-JFK Airport. Not being one to pass up a good emergency, I loaded my son into the turbo wagon and picked up a friend along the way and drove down to the Euclid Av subway station. I found a parking spot less than a half-block from the shuttle bus loading area. We took the shuttle bus to Howard Beach – it was a pleasantly nice and quick ride. Once at Howard beach, we partook in a jaunt on AirTrain over to Federal Circle and Jamaica and back. My son loved AirTrain – it was his first ride ever on it. The shuttle bus ride back to Euclid was not so great – the bus was very full and the people boarding at the Casino could barely fit. Seems like the dispatching could have been better. Overall it was a nice ground level tour of parts of Brooklyn and Queens that I don’t often see.

Here are some photos of the shuttle bus loading area taken after we got back to Euclid.

Due to mechanical problems on the Harlem River Bridge, there is no train service in both directions from the 215th Street Station to the 242nd Street-Van Cortlandt Park Station.

As an alternative, customers are advised to take Bx7 or Bx9 bus making nearby station stops.

Please allow additional travel time.

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This has been going on for almost an hour now. They keep sounding the horn as if the bridge is going to be lifted but then nothing happens. I saw a tug boat so it seems as if it may be trying to get under the bridge. Maybe the bridge broke?

And by the way, if the 1 train can’t cross the bridge, neither can the Bx7! And neither can people who take the Bx9 to 225th Street! When the bridge is in this state, trains, vehicles, and pedestrians are all prohibited from crossing the bridge! And Broadway is probably all backed up in both directions! So the suggested alternative is practically useless!

The West Side IRT lines (1/2/3) through midtown Manhattan were suspended and/or rerouted for a while yesterday, apparently due to signal problems in the area of the 42 St-Times Square station. This likely caused higher loads along parallel subway routes and generally delayed and annoyed a lot of people.

amNY has an article about how Penn Station New York is still a terrible transportation hub for riders/pedestrians to navigate. While there’s no new information in the article, it is good that this topic is still being brought up by the media.

Despite some half a billion dollars in improvements over the years, Penn Station is still one of the most difficult transit hubs to figure out, the perennial ugly sister to a majestic Grand Central Terminal.

With its low ceilings, cramped signs, huge crowds, and maze of hallways, travelers say they often find themselves getting lost in the underground labyrinth.